Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Sex sells at primary school concert

There is a time and a place where you expect to see young girls bouncing about, spouting misogynistic lyrics about being dollies to be touched, played with and undressed at the whim of an adoring male. Hey, it's a material world after all, right? And sex sells every time.

The time and place is Video Hits on a Saturday morning.

So, imagine my shock and horror when the time and place also turned out to be at my son's primary school concert. The girls (and boys) were seven and eight years old. The song was Aqua's 'Barbie Girl'. The person who had chosen the song and taught the kids the lyrics was their teacher. And the school principal was looking on.

What is wrong with this picture?

What is really, truly wrong is that nobody at the school seems to have seen anything wrong with it. I don't know if it's worse that a teacher chose it or that the school principal or deputy didn't see something amiss at the rehearsal stage.

"The teacher must have chosen the song for the Barbie connection and not the lyrics," was one comment. (Yes, I have been raving about this to everyone I speak to for the past day.)

I bloody well hope so, or it's even worse than I thought!

But surely she must have noticed the lyrics as she was helping the kids to learn them by heart? And isn't it her job to notice?

You can touch, you can playYou can say I'm always yoursone more:Make me walk, make me talk, do whatever you pleaseI can act like a star, I can beg on my kneesCome jump in, be my friend, let us do it againHit the town, fool around, let's go party

You can touch, you can playYou can say I'm always yours

I can't help but feel very concerned indeed about the values that are being taught and held at my son's school. Either that teacher has precisely one brain cell, or those materialistic, sexist, misogynistic values are so deeply embedded in her being that the thought of teaching them to young children doesn't even give her pause for thought. One thing is for sure. I don't ever want her teaching MY child.

And so is one other thing: if that had been my daughter on stage, I would be raising hell up at the school.